“This award for us is the most prestigious award that we have at Riverside Military Academy to bestow,” Lieutenant Colonel James Spivey, U.S. Army Retired, told the 225 attendees seated inside the impressive Alumni Dining Hall. Spivey, Interim President of the private school founded in 1907, repeated the award’s significance. “This is the highest award we give here.”

The award is named in honor of General Sandy Beaver who served as President of RMA from 1913 to 1969. Stewart received the award posthumously, having passed away in 2012. His grandchildren, Will and Garrett Green, accepted the medal in his place. “Woody” Stewart was born in 1938 and served as a founding member of Gainesville law firm Stewart, Melvin and Frost.

Among his many credits was his time as chairman of The Medical Center Foundation for Northeast Georgia Health Systems. During his time on that board NGMC expanded greatly as Stewart worked tirelessly to raise funding for the hospital. Stewart is often quoted for saying, “Philanthropy is the difference between a good hospital and great hospital.”

Jack Frost is the owner of Memorial Park Funeral Homes and Cemeteries. Originally from Tennessee, Frost got into the cemetery and final expense business at a young age, buying and selling more than 100 cemeteries in twelve different states. In 1988 he purchased Memorial Park Cemetery and eventually moved to Gainesville full time in the early 2000s. “The more I came here the more I loved what I saw. I found people with a heart,” Frost told the audience. “It was unbelievable; they accepted me in a way I did not expect.”